Reviews

FIFA Soccer 06

The controls and gameplay are where FIFA 06 mutually achieves and stumbles, depending on how many soccer games you've played in your lifetime. One of FIFA's constantly touted and lauded elements is its ease to pick up and play. Beginners to the genre of soccer games usually start off with it because of this ease; it's got hundreds of licensed teams with thousands of real players, and it's pretty to look at.

Plus, between EA's marketing and that EA Sports Bio (for those who don't remember, it integrated unlockable features between all EA Sports games depending on how many you played and how often you did it) they did two years ago, they've hooked millions of North Americans on FIFA. This year's game is no exception. The presentation is phenomenal, just as should be expected from EA. The controls are easy for newbies, but complex enough to get good at and keep friends on their toes. Ironically, while the Xbox version looks better than the PS2, the control mapping is substantially more intuitive on Sony's machine. It's easier to pull off crosses, one-two passes, and use the new Pace Control (mapped to R2 versus the ergonomically undesirable White button) on PlayStation 2.

Where does it stumble, however? Well, after playing a couple of Winning Eleven titles, I, and other soccer game fanatics, always end up comparing the two. And for all of FIFA's meticulous attention to visual details, licensing, and re-creating soccer as if it were on Fox Sports World, it still doesn't quite have the obsessive-compulsiveness that makes WE/Pro Evo such a popular franchise worldwide. It feels like a soccer game, but it doesn't feel as engrossing as its Japanese rival. And, to be honest, the New Dribble control scheme seems to be EA's attempt to reach out to the WE fanboy contingency. The controls are mapped out just like Konami's game, with (using the PS2 as an example) L1 selecting a player and the shoot/long pass buttons reverse mapped from the usual FIFA style. Some would consider it adaptation. I consider it a concession of sorts. It always seems as though the new FIFA in October is playing catch-up to February's Winning Eleven. Despite all of the new control features, New Dribble exposes that weakness for all to see, whether the EA team realizes it or not.

Multiplayer is broken up into two types: FIFA Lounge and Online. The Lounge is great for a room full of people, as it breaks up the rote and relatively monotonous "up to eight guys in a room playing a normal cup/tournament." The Lounge spices things up by allowing players to customize their tournaments and balancing out gameplay by allowing weaker players to whip out trump cards to weaken dominant vets and keep things exciting. It's a new and innovative spin on a multiplayer element that didn't seem like it was boring until something this exciting came along. Online, however, is another story. Xbox Live ships players onto EA's servers to play. I got completely dismantled by an English player who managed to pierce through my defense like a hollow point bullet through a Kevlar vest. Or something like that. It was a relatively smooth and lag-free (not to mention humbling) experience, except for my TV settings trying to run at 1080i and killing my framerate.